Fresh warning for toll users as service under attack from scammers

Australian road-toll service Linkt is warning of a new spike in scams targeting its users – with the number of attempts almost doubling between February and March this year alone.

The toll provider, which operates across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, said it has seen a “significant increase” in scams this year in which customers are being tricked into paying for routes they didn’t drive.

Since 2021, parent firm Transurban has blocked 38,000 unique numbers attempting to commit a scam – with 10,000 of those coming this year alone. In addition, it says, it has quashed 2200 fake URLs in the same time period.

“In February we reported over 3700 dodgy numbers or websites to telcos. For the month of March it was over 7000," said Chris Jackson, General Manager of Customer Experience at Transurban.

“Reporting a scam is fast, easy and it’s our best defence against hackers. Every report is valuable. Even if you are not fooled, taking the time to report a scam helps us protect more vulnerable members of the community.”

“We're aware of multiple scam SMS claiming to be from Linkt, urging you to pay for tolls, or warning of overdue or unpaid bills,” Linkt added in a statement.

“The SMS claims that toll payments are overdue and includes a link, asking you to use the link to payment, or to verify the unpaid bill.

“Often, the text claims you will receive fines, penalties, or fees if you do not pay immediately. These are not real Linkt or Transurban communications. Do not click the links, call the number, or reply to the sender.”

As a result of the rise in scams, Linkt, which has been operating since 2017 as Transurban’s e-tag tolling brand in Australia, is advising users to keep on their guard by not clicking on links they receive in an SMS, not providing personal or financial information through email or SMS, and to change their passwords to make them more secure and harder to guess.

In addition, if users receive a fraudulent text or email they should report it by contacting: www.linkt.com.au/contact-us/report-scam

Since the Linkt brand was first widely used by scammers in 2021, Transurban has logged more than 470,000 scam reports. 

“We’ll never ask you to make a payment via a link in an SMS. Remember to always log in directly via the Linkt app or website to manage your account, including checking if you owe money for tolls,” Linkt said in a statement.

The warning comes as Victoria Police is also telling the public to remain vigilant against other forms of cybercrime, with Australia Post in the spotlight as another big-name brand being hit.

Earlier in the year Australia Post received a large number of complaints about emails telling customers they must pay a fee to process their delivery.

Overall however, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the amount lost to scams nationally was down in 2023 – but still amounted to $2.7 billion.

New data from the National Anti-Scam Centre’s collaborative efforts across government, law enforcement, consumer organisations and industry shows a 13.1 per cent decline in reported losses in 2023.

Australians made more than 601,000 scam reports to these organisations last year, an 18.5 per cent increase on 2022. In terms of financial losses, investment scams continued to cause the most harm ($1.3 billion), followed by remote access swindles ($256 million) and romance cons ($201.1 million). 

“It is encouraging to see signs that our coordinated scam prevention, detection and disruption initiatives can stem the flow of funds to criminals and protect consumers,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said in a statement.

“We are optimistic that our combined efforts will continue to reduce scam losses. We will continue this important work because losses remain too high and behind the numbers are real people who have lost money, often every last cent, to scams.”

Despite the overall success in bringing numbers down, the Targeting Scams report also shows some “concerning” emerging trends – with increases in financial losses to phishing, payment redirection (such as is the case with Linkt) and job scams.

Older people suffered the greatest harm at the hands of con-artists. People over the age of 65 were the only age group to experience an increase – with numbers up by 13.3 per cent in 2023 to $120 million.